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The Bendix Trophy is an aeronautical racing trophy. The transcontinental, point-to-point race, sponsored by industrialist Vincent Bendix, began in 1931. The last Bendix Trophy Race was flown in 1962. Vincent Bendix (August 12, 1882 – March 27, 1945) was an American inventor and industrialist. ...
The purpose was to interest engineers in building faster, more reliable, and durable aircraft. Bendix competitors flew from Burbank, California, to Cleveland, Ohio, except for two years when the contest began in New York and ended in Los Angeles.
Famous competitors for the trophy included Jimmy Doolittle, who won the first race; Roscoe Turner, who won in 1933; Doug Davis, who achieved victory in 1934; and significantly, several women. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to enter the Bendix, taking fifth place in 1935. In 1936, Louise Thaden and her copilot Blanche Noyes won the race. Laura Ingalls finished second. In 1938, Jackie Cochran, arguably the greatest female aviator of all time, took home the trophy. Paul Mantz was the only pilot to ever win the Bendix three consecutive years, from 1946 through 1948. Brig. ...
Douglas P. Doug Davis (born September 21, 1975) is a starting pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers. ...
Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart (born 24 July 1897, Atchison, Kansas - missing from 2 July 1937, western Pacific ocean), daughter of Edwin and Amy Earhart, was an American aviator and noted early female pilot who mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during a circumnavigational flight in 1937. ...
Iris Louise McPhetridge Thaden (November 12, 1905-November 9, 1979) was an aviation pioneer, holder of numerous aviation records, and the first woman to win the Bendix Trophy. ...
Laura Ingalls Wilder - writer, author of Little House on the Prairie books Laura Ingalls - the pilot Laura Ingalls - was also a cousin of Laura Ingalls Wilder Categories: Disambiguation ...
Jacqueline Cochran, born Bessie Lee Pittman (May 11, 1906 - August 7, 1980) was a pioneer American aviatrix. ...
Paul Albert Mantz (1903-July 8, 1965) was a leading stunt and racing pilot of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. ...
Mister Mulligan
"Mister Mulligan" was the only airplane ever designed for the specific purpose of winning the Bendix Trophy. Commissioned and flown by Ben Howard in the 1935 race. The plane was designed and developed by Ben Howard and Gordon Israel, who went on the become an engineer for the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation. "Mister Mulligan" was designed to fly the entire length of the race nonstop and at high altitude. Neither had ever been done before. Howard and Israel, who co-piloted, won the trophy, changing how long distance airplanes were designed. Ben Howard is an American author from Iowa. ...
The Grumman logo The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading producer of military and civilian aircraft of the 20th century. ...
The second place plane in the 1935 race was actually a faster airplane, but had to make refuelling stops, which cost enough time to prevent Roscoe Turner from winning the race. The time difference was only 23 seconds between first and second place.
"Mister Mulligan" not only won the Bendix but also the Thompson Trophy when flown by Harold Neumann in 1935. Instead of a cross-country distance race, the Thompson was a closed-circuit race around pylons, a type of race for which it was not particularly well suited. Entered again in the Bendix in 1936, the "Mister Mulligan" was completely destroyed in a crash landing which almost killed Howard and his co-pilot wife, Maxine.
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